I woke up this morning, the sun shining in through the window, the silky curtains swaying and rippling in the breeze. I sat up in my bed, stretching my arms above my head. When I got out of my bed, my feet touched the soft rug, lining the floor on that side of my bed. I walked down the stairs, my night gown swaying with the movement.  

    As soon as I had reached the bottom step, I heard voices talking. It was my mom on the phone with someone, saying “Yes, right away! We will pick up one and bring it home! All right, well, I’ll see you later! Okay! Bye!” She finished off her sentence and put the phone down on the table. 

    “Who was that?” I asked, rubbing the sleep out of my eyes.  
   

    “Just the zoo.” She said it like it was a normal thing to get a call from the zoo at eight in the morning. Her wavy auburn hair draped over her shoulders.  

    “Um, why?” I asked, knowing I had asked the obvious question, but needing more of an explanation.  

    “It’s a surprise. You’ll find out soon enough, but we just have to wait for Lizzie to wake up.” I was so anxious to find out what was going on, that I sprinted up the stairs and went barreling into my little sister's room. When I got into her room, I instantly tripped. My sister Lizzie is verry messy. She never picks up after herself, just running around making a mess and then never cleaning it up. I maneuvered carefully to my sister’s bed, finding her sprawled all over her covers. 
   

    “Lizzie! Wake up!” I said, just a little louder than I normally talk.  

    “What?! I promise I’ll do it later!” She said, still drowsy, and as fast as she had woken up, she was asleep again. I shook her by the shoulders, getting her out of her daze.  

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    As soon as I had gotten her out of her bed and downstairs, my mom started talking. “Okay. I know you girls are excited, but you have to promise not to tell anyone about this commitment.” She paused before continuing, glancing at my dad, who had just come downstairs, after working up in his office all morning. She sighed a deep sigh before starting again. “So, the zoo called this morning saying that they had too many animals, and that none of the other zoo’s would take one. So they decided to call some of our cities citizens to see if any of us would like -”  

    “Wait! Are you saying that we are going to get an exotic pet?!?!” I practically shouted.  

    “What’s an empodic pet?” Lizzie asked, yawning afterwards. As you could have guessed, Lizzie isn’t that smart, even though she was just in 1st grade, she still didn’t know much about big words like endangered or exotic.  

    “Exotic.” I said, trying to drill some knowledge into that tiny brain of hers.  

    She just looked at me and rolled her eyes “Whatever.”  

    “Well, as I was saying,” My mom went on, not wanting to wait until another fight was over to continue. “The zoo had called us to see if we would want one, and I said that I would check with you two before I said anything. Even if we do get a pet, it would be your responsibility to look after it. That includes cleaning it, feeding it, making sure it’s comfortable, and cleaning up its droppings.” She concluded. “I’ll let you two talk about it before you just blurt out what you want without talk - “  

    “I want a peacock!!!!” Lizzie shouted at the same time I said “I want a lion or an elephant!!!!”  
    “Peacocks are prettier!” Lizzie argued. 
   

    “I know that peacocks are pretty, but are they as amazing as an elephant?” I said “Elephants can love you. Peacocks are just mindless birds who walk around just trying to find bread crums.”  I said, imitating a peacock, strutting around with its head high and looking like I was lost, bumping into things everywhere I went. “By the way, elephants resemble luck and prosperity, while peacocks resemble, um, what was it, stupidity?”  

    “No, it was power, strength, complements and infinity.” she said proudly. “I heard Ms. Rollins about it and that’s what she said.” finishing off her sentence with a confident expression and putting her hands on her hips. Actually, peacocks resembled power, strength, confidence, and divinity, not compliments and infinity. Typical little sisters, I thought to myself why can’t they just agree with the things that I want?!  

    “I actually think that having an elephant might be useful, knowing how they can be trained to do marvelous things.” Said my dad, finally finding his voice, after all, he had just been staring out into space for the past 5 minutes. 

   “See! I told you that I wasn’t going to be the only one on board with this plan!” 

    “Okay, so who’s all in favor of getting the elephant?” My mom said, needing a vote to see which we should choose.  

    Three of us chose this, all including my mom, my dad, and me. Lizzie was the only one who wanted the peacock.  

    “So that settles it then! We get a baby elephant, and we train it to be our own! We just need to pick a name for it and to see if we want it to be a boy or a girl.”  

    “I vote girl!” I said. This time all of the family was in agreement with my decision. “What should we name it? We can’t just say ‘Come here elephant’ or ‘Over here girl’”  

    “I kinda want to call her Lotus, you know, like a lotus flower?” Lizzie said. I had to agree with her, it was a good name, but it just didn’t feel right to me.  

    “Why don’t we see what the elephant is like, and then we can name her off of her actions.”  

    “Sure. Why not?” My dad said, anxious just to see the baby elephant.  

    So, my mom called the zoo, telling them that we wanted a baby elephant, preferably a girl. They said that they had a new baby elephant that was about 6 months old, and just now trying to stop drinking her mother’s milk. My mom said that this is perfect and that it was super convenient that they had a girl.  

    My whole family is scared of boy elephants, because they can cause a lot more damage. It’s scary sometimes, seeing a male elephant at the zoo, separated from every other only because they were untrustworthy.  

    The zoo officer that my mom was talking to said that they could bring the elephant here by twelve p.m., unless we’re not ready.  
 

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    When the elephant got here, it was put in a large silver trailer (like a horse trailer). It looked small, unlike the babies you see on documentaries. She looked so sweet, but then I could see a fire in her eyes, telling me that if she got in trouble, and was scared, that she wouldn’t hesitate to hurt someone, if it meant saving her life. Her ears looked too large for that tiny head, and it also looked like she was learning how to walk, considering that her legs were scrawny compared to the adult versions of herself. 

    We led her to the area we chose for her to sleep and laid her down, hoping she would sleep the night peacefully.  

    After she had fallen asleep, we told Maggie, the family dog, to sleep by her to make sure that she was okay.  

    At dinner, I told my family that I had thought of a good name for her, and that it was Adira, meaning strong and mighty. That felt like the name for her, the little but strong elephant, embracing change, and going to live in a new world.